Projects › Upper West Side › West End Avenue
Completed project · Upper West Side, New York, NY
A hall bathroom on West End Avenue went from a cast-iron tub to a walk-in shower behind a custom black French-style door, without moving a wall. In the same apartment, sixteen linear feet of Plain and Fancy cabinetry went up the dining room wall and ten more went into the office, both built tall enough to stop short of the original cove moulding. A hall closet was opened up to its full width. Every product below is the one specified.
Job record
- Project
- Hall bathroom tub-to-shower conversion, dining room and office built-ins, hall closet
- Location
- West End Avenue, Upper West Side, Manhattan, NY
- Completed
- May 2026
- Duration
- about 10 weeks on site
- Dining room cabinetry
- About 16 linear feet, 8 ft to 8 ft 6 in tall, built in two parts to fit the elevator
- Office cabinetry
- About 10 linear feet of desk and cabinetry, same height
- Hall closet
- Opened to its full 70 in width and 9 ft height, behind two bypass doors
- Wall tile
- 225 sq ft of 3 in by 6 in subway, to ceiling height in the shower
- Scope
- Bathroom renovation · Tub to walk-in shower · Custom millwork · Dining room and office built-ins · Hall closet · Painting
- Kept
- The original cove moulding, the picture rail and the parquet floor
- Team
- Designer Rejla · Project manager Danny · Renovation expert Ben
The starting point: a cast-iron tub and a pedestal sink
The hall bathroom ran long and narrow with a window at the far end. Plain white square tile, a cast-iron tub behind a curtain rod, a 24 inch pedestal sink, a recess-mount medicine cabinet and a tall glass-fronted corner cabinet. The proportions were worth keeping. Nothing else in the room was.
What the crew did, in order
Strip out
Floor and wall tile, saddle, the cast-iron tub and drain, the 24 inch pedestal sink, the tank toilet, the recess-mount medicine cabinet, the sconce, the ceiling light, two switches and the GFCI all came out. The window, the door positions and the footprint stayed where they were.
Plumbing and waterproofing
New hot, cold and waste vent branch lines were run back to the risers with new shut-off valves, check valves and water hammer arrestors. A lead shower pan went in, then Laticrete waterproof membrane across the floor turned up the walls 6 inches, a second membrane on the shower walls to ceiling height, acoustical underlayment and cement board in the enclosure.
Tile
Daltile Arctic White 3 by 6 subway to ceiling height inside the shower and about 4 feet outside it, with a black 3 by 6 accent course and Arctic White jolly trim. Emser Eclissi 5 inch cross in white and star in jet black on the floor, on Laticrete Permacolor Select grout, white on the field and Midnight Black on the accent.
Fittings and light
Brizo Baliza and Invari in Brilliance Polished Nickel throughout: pressure balance trim, a three function diverter, an arc shower arm, an H2Okinetic raincan head and a wall-mount hand shower. Anthropologie Eloise scallop milk glass for the sconce and the ceiling light.
Vanity, paper and mirror
A custom mid-century dark vanity was set with a Caesarstone Calacatta Stillstorm top, then Mitchell Black Flourish floral wallpaper went on the panel behind it, then the Anthropologie Gleaming Primrose gold mirror. The custom black French-style shower door went in last.
Millwork
In the dining room and the office, Plain and Fancy Quaker Shaker inset cabinetry was set in two parts each so it would fit the building elevator, stopping short of the cove moulding. The hall closet lost its cedar panelling and a sub-40-square-foot partition, opening to its full width behind two bypass doors.
Materials and finishes
| Element | Specification |
|---|---|
| Wall tile | Daltile 019036MOD1P4, Arctic White 3 in by 6 in glossy, with a K11136MOD1P4 black accent and 0190S1/212J1P2 Arctic White jolly trim |
| Floor tile | Emser Tile Eclissi, W14ECLICRWH0505M white cross and W14ECLISTJE0505M jet black star, 5 in |
| Grout | Laticrete Permacolor Select NS 44 Bright White, with 22 Midnight Black on the accent course |
| Shower door | Custom, French style, black |
| Shower valve and trim | Brizo MultiChoice R60000-UNBX rough with Baliza T60P005-PN pressure balance trim, and a Baliza R60700 / T60805-PN three function diverter |
| Showerhead | Brizo Invari 87476-PN H2Okinetic raincan on an RP100326PN 12 in arc arm, with an RP41202PN wall-mount hand shower and RP70614PN elbow |
| Drainage | Infinity Drain UCP 42 clamping drain and CDIQ 42 floor drain in cast iron, K 5-SS stainless cover |
| Stone | Caesarstone Calacatta Stillstorm, polished 3cm, for the 48 in vanity top, both shower saddles, the room saddle and the window sill |
| Vanity | Custom mid-century dark by Jan Myszkowski, 48 in wide, with a matching 86 in storage cabinet |
| Basin and faucet | TOTO LT781.8#01 in cotton, with a Brizo Baliza 65305LF-PNLHP widespread faucet and HL505-PN lever handles |
| Toilet | TOTO MS974224CEFG#01 in cotton, 12 in rough, with a THU458PN polished nickel trip lever |
| Mirror | Anthropologie The Gleaming Primrose 3 ft wall mirror, gold |
| Wall covering | Anthropologie Mitchell Black Flourish floral wallpaper, traditional grasscloth |
| Lighting | Anthropologie Eloise scallop milk glass vanity sconce and semi-flush ceiling light, white glass and brass |
| Accessories | Brizo 69525-PN 24 in double towel bar, 69535-PN double robe hook and 69550-PN tissue holder, polished nickel |
| Cabinet hardware | Top Knobs Coddington TK3190PN knobs and TK3193PN pulls, polished nickel |
| Electrical | Lutron NTR-20-GFST-WH 20 amp GFCI, with Buster and Punch white plates and cross detail kits |
| Dining room and office millwork | Plain and Fancy Quaker Standard Shaker inset, cherry in Winter Wheat for the dining room and Platinum for the office |
| Millwork hardware | Top Knobs Kinney TK901BN and Hollin TK922BN in the dining room, Riverside TK1010HB and TK1014HB in honey bronze in the office |
| Closet | Stillwell painted shelf and rod interiors, behind Dykes Lumber PR8020 sliding doors on a Johnson heavy duty track, with Rejuvenation 2335324 polished nickel hardware |
| Paint | Sherwin-Williams Emerald, SW 7005 Pure White, matte on walls, flat on ceilings and pearl on trim |
| Flooring underlay | Ecore QT Sound Control QTSU 4005, glued with Bostik EFA |
| Behind the tile | Lead shower pan · Laticrete waterproof membrane turned up the walls 6 in · second membrane to ceiling height in the shower · acoustical underlayment · cement board · recessed niche |
Built around what was already there
The dining room and office cabinetry runs 8 to 8 and a half feet tall, deliberately stopping below the original cove moulding rather than cutting into it. The hall closet opening intersects the picture rail, so the new framing had to meet it cleanly. The parquet floor was protected and kept throughout.
Both runs were built in two parts each, because a single 16 foot case does not fit in a pre-war elevator or round a pre-war hallway. That is a manufacturing decision made at the drawing stage, not something solved on site.
The result
The bathroom came back as the same narrow room with every surface replaced and a walk-in shower where the cast-iron tub had been. The dining room and the office each gained a full wall of storage without losing the floor or the mouldings that were already there.
More MyHome projects in Upper West Side
Questions people ask about pre-war bathrooms and built-in storage
My pre-war apartment bathroom has a leak and the tile is failing. Should I repair it or do a full renovation?
It depends on what is behind the tile, and you cannot know until it is open. On this bathroom everything came out down to the substrate and the hot, cold and waste vent branch lines were re-run back to the risers with new shut-off valves, check valves and water hammer arrestors. The footprint did not change, so the money went into surfaces, fittings and waterproofing rather than into moving anything.
What actually goes behind the tile to protect the apartment below?
Here: a lead shower pan, Laticrete waterproof membrane across the floor turned up the walls 6 inches, a second membrane on the shower walls to ceiling height, acoustical underlayment, and cement board in the enclosure. Infinity Drain cast-iron clamping and floor drains take the water out. None of it appears in a finished photograph and all of it is what keeps a bathroom from becoming the downstairs neighbour’s problem.
What are the challenges of renovating a pre-war apartment in Manhattan?
The original detail is the asset and the constraint at once. The built-ins here were held to 8 feet 6 inches so they would stop short of the cove moulding, the hall closet opening had to meet the picture rail, and both cabinetry runs were built in two parts each because a 16 foot case will not fit in a pre-war elevator. Those are drawing-stage decisions, not site problems.
I am not design savvy. Do NYC renovation companies help you pick cabinets and countertops, or do I need a separate designer?
The specification on this job runs from the Plain and Fancy door style and cherry finish down to the model number of the tissue holder. One designer, one project manager and one renovation expert carried the bathroom, the dining room, the office and the hall closet on the same schedule.
Can a tub become a walk-in shower without moving plumbing or walls?
Yes. The shower on this job sits in the cast-iron tub’s old position on a new lead pan, with the branch lines re-run inside the existing wall. No wall moved and the window stayed exactly where it was. What changes the feel of the room is tile run to ceiling height instead of half height, and a glass door instead of a curtain.
